Author: bettinadrummond

Living with chronic Lyme disease can be a challenge for both humans and horses, as both Bettina and her Quarter Horse stallion Vousy know. Once in the system, Lyme can easily reoccur resulting in a constant battle to keep the effects of the disease in check. Bettina’s student Christian Gundermann has just published an essay […]

An enjoyable trip down memory lane was Dominique Barbier’s latest book, Riding with Oliveira: My Time with the Mestre – Forty Years Later, revisiting his couple of years spent in Avessada with the Maître , now as Mestre Nuno to his students in Portugal. It brought back the ambience of that amalgam of artist fervor and displayed and discussed technique , which made the time there […]

In the fall of 2018, while in France attending a colloquia at Saumur and coaching riders at the Cadre Noir and at Allege-Ideal, Bettina delivered a lecture at the Cadre Noir on the history of the French system of riding in the United States. It was also during that trip that she received the designation […]

It was my great pleasure to receive as a late Christmas gift the very book published by Xenophon of my fellow Oliveira student Miquel Abrantes known as Miguel Tavora to his Australian students (his publishing name is Major Miguel de Lancastre e Tavora). The book is Dressage Principles and Techniques: A blueprint for the serious […]

Equestrian Earns Distinction – Washington woman 2nd American to receive honorary title Washington — Bettina Drummond remembers watching renowned equestrian Nuno Oliveira on horseback, suspended in the air with the sunlight streaming on his face. “It was like seeing a great dancer,” said Drummond, 55, and a noted equestrian herself. She now teaches others in […]

Bettina receiving the award of Honorary Écuyer. (Photo by Alain Laurioux) Bettina Drummond has been named “Honorary Écuyer” of Saumur with the Cadre Noir at the French National School of Equitation in Saumur, France. The honor was bestowed on Bettina while in France attending a colloquia at Saumur and coaching riders at the Cadre Noir […]

2012 Action Maverick Award Recipient — Bettina Drummond While much of the world seems in conflict over the question of whether dressage is art or sport, classical trainer and rider Bettina Drummond faces no such conflict. For her, riding has always been art. Any work of art, Drummond said, should not only move people, but […]

Memories of Joao, My First Dressage Teacher By Bettina Drummond My earliest memory of Joao Oliveira was during a visit in 1970 to his father’s old school, Quinta do Chafariz. My mother, Phyllis Field, had cliniced with Oliveira, and she arranged for my sister, Fiona, and me to join her there during our spring break. […]

Young Bettina Drummond is Passing On the Training Techniques of the Great Master — In the Style of Nuno There are three people in the world authorized by Nuno Oliveira to teach his techniques: there are two in Portugal, Oliveira’s son Juao, and Guilherme Borba. In America, there is Bettina Drummond, a slim 23-year-old who […]